Red Moon
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3.9 • 136 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Red Moon is a magnificent novel of space exploration and political revolution from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson.
It is thirty years from now, and we have colonized the moon.
American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.
It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler.
Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything -- on the moon, and on Earth.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
If you’re enthralled by the idea of commercial space travel, Red Moon will fuel those flames. Set in the near future on the first lunar colony—established by China—Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel imagines how geopolitics will affect the great beyond. The story follows three space travelers whose already-risky lives on the moon get even more complex thanks to secrets, lies, and deadly crimes. Robinson’s meticulous descriptions and thought-provoking ideas about space colonization’s ripple effects provide a gripping backdrop for Red Moon’s intrigue-filled plot.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Although the premise of Robinson's disappointing latest near-future novel that by 2047 the moon has been colonized by the U.S. and China is classically science-fictional, the focus remains on projecting those countries' economic and political futures back on Earth rather than on exploring the implications of extraterrestrial human societies. Fred Fredericks, an American, has been sent to the moon to deliver a "mobile quantum key" phone to the Chinese, but when he shakes the hand of Gov. Chang Yazu, both men are poisoned, Chang fatally. American State Department agents try to keep Fred out of Chinese custody as an investigation is launched into the murder, which may implicate a super-secret branch of Chinese intelligence whose desire to militarize the moon was opposed by Chang. Fred ends up fleeing to Earth along with Qi, a woman who illegally got pregnant on the moon. Their narrow escapes become repetitive, and neither character is well-developed, while Robinson's speculations about a future for blockchain governance are interesting but not well integrated into the plot. This dry work is didactic and unremarkable.
